Open Access

REVIEW

Tumor neoantigens: Novel strategies for application of cancer immunotherapy

HANYANG GUAN^1,#, YUE WU^2,#, LU LI^3,#, YABING YANG¹, SHENGHUI QIU¹, ZHAN ZHAO¹, XIAODONG CHU¹, JIASHUAI HE¹, ZUYANG CHEN¹, YIRAN ZHANG¹, HUI DING¹, JINGHUA PAN^1,*, YUNLONG PAN^1,*

1 Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, China
2 Department of Gynecology, Women’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital, Nanjing, 210004, China
3 Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510630, China

* Corresponding Authors: JINGHUA PAN. Email: ; YUNLONG PAN. Email:
# These authors contributed equally to this work

Oncology Research 2023, 31(4), 437-448. https://doi.org/10.32604/or.2023.029924

Received 14 March 2023; Accepted 11 May 2023; Issue published 25 June 2023

Abstract

Neoantigen-targeted immunotherapy is a rapidly advancing field that holds great promise for treating cancer. The recognition of antigens by immune cells is a crucial step in tumor-specific killing, and neoantigens generated by mutations in cancer cells possess high immunogenicity and are selectively expressed in tumor cells, making them an attractive therapeutic target. Currently, neoantigens find utility in various domains, primarily in the realm of neoantigen vaccines such as DC vaccines, nucleic acid vaccines, and synthetic long peptide vaccines. Additionally, they hold promise in adoptive cell therapy, encompassing tumor-infiltrating cells, T cell receptors, and chimeric antigen receptors which are expressed by genetically modified T cells. In this review, we summarized recent progress in the clinical use of tumor vaccines and adoptive cell therapy targeting neoantigens, discussed the potential of neoantigen burden as an immune checkpoint in clinical settings. With the aid of state-of-the-art sequencing and bioinformatics technologies, together with significant advancements in artificial intelligence, we anticipated that neoantigens will be fully exploited for personalized tumor immunotherapy, from screening to clinical application.

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